When you’re busy with the day-to-day, blogging often doesn’t stand a chance on your to-do list. But it should – blogging generates brand awareness, builds brand recall, contributes to developing your brand’s identity, and boosts sales. Over 82% of marketers who blog daily report that they acquire new customers through their blog.
Let’s dive deeper into four key benefits of ecommerce blogging.
1. SEO Boost
Assuming a blog is unnecessary because your audience is too small is a mistake. Not having a blog will only ensure it remains that way. Blogging can earn you coveted spots in search rankings and drive traffic to your store.
- Google Love: By regularly blogging, you win favor with Google – the search giant favors actively updated websites.
- Valuable Links: Blog posts give you a chance to target and create content around a wider variety of key phrases. From there, you can build valuable internal links to your product pages and increase traffic.
- Ranking Improvement. If your blog posts are interesting enough to get linked to from other quality sites, you’ll see an improvement in your ranking results.
2. Lead Gen and Customer Acquisition and Retention
If you’re posting interesting content on your blog, people will naturally want more. Add a subscribe box on each of your blog posts – or on your site’s main page – for people to sign up for more content. This is super low-hanging fruit and you can easily gather some free leads.
Once you have them, keep giving them compelling content or entice them with a discount on their next purchase. If users see you’re genuine and relatable, sales will happen organically. A blog also allows you to demonstrate your expertise and easily communicate new products/versions/releases to your base.
Blog posts support social initiatives and social helps you promote your blog content – a mutually beneficial relationship. Blogs are flexible allowing you to mix-up your media. Post copy, video, infographics, cartoons, webinars, podcasts and more to show your expertise in different ways to your audience. The more interactive, engaging and diverse your content, the more likely it is to be shared and the more likely it is to build your base.
4. Increased Brand Presence
People buy solutions not features and are loyal to brands not products, with people tending to gravitate to companies that have a human side. Blogs allow you to share the ‘personality’ behind your business in a way that is less stringently controlled by your official brand voice. A good example of a store who makes their blog work for them is Casper, a bedding and mattress store. Their blog, Pillow Talk, does a great job of dealing with the otherwise dry topic of mattresses in a hip, fun tone.
Keep it Coming – And Customers Will Keep Coming Back
Having a blog can help you set your ecommerce business apart from the competition by securing better spots in search results, telling your brand’s story and showcasing your products. When you provide a steady stream of valuable, engaging content, you won’t just be drawing in new customers, you’ll also give existing ones a good reason to keep coming back.
